in FACT The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens 2017–18 1 Quick Facts and Figures about The Huntington 2017–18 table of contents A Collections-Based Research and Educational Institution 2 Henry and Arabella Huntington 3 The Five Program Areas 4 Architecture at a Glance 12 Financial Highlights 14 Institutional Governance 15 Key Contacts 18 A Collections-Based Research and Educational Institution The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens is a collections-based research and educational institution serving scholars and the general public. Each year, The Huntington: • Provides 1,700 scholars with access to a world-class collection of rare books, manuscripts, photographs, maps, paintings, prints, sculpture, and decorative arts; • Awards $1.85 million in fellowships (through a peer-review process) to scholars for advanced humanities research; • Educates thousands of schoolchildren and their teachers in art, history, literature, and botanical science through special tours Henry and Arabella Huntington and programs; • Organizes special exhibitions to enhance the visitor experience, Railroad and real estate businessman Henry Edwards Huntington interpret the collections, and facilitate learning; and was born on Feb. 27, 1850, in Oneonta, N.Y. Henry and his uncle, Collis P. Huntington, were leaders in building the railroads that • Hosts more than 750,000 visitors. span the country. In 1892, Henry moved to San Francisco to represent Huntington interests on the Pacific Coast. And in 1902 The Huntington has a membership totaling more than 40,000 (two years after the death of Collis), Huntington transferred his households, an active volunteer corps of some 1,500, and a headquarters to Los Angeles and started to connect, consolidate, full- and part-time staff of more than 400. It is an independent and extend the electric railway system in Southern California nonprofit organization, supported by gifts and grants from (the “Red Cars”). He had large landholdings in Southern California individuals, corporations, foundations, and government agencies and numerous business interests. In 1903, he bought the San and by a private endowment. Marino Ranch (now The Huntington). He married Arabella Duval Huntington, the widow of Collis, in 1913. Together, they amassed extensive library, art, and botanical collections that continue to evolve. Henry died in 1927; Arabella predeceased him by three years. 2 3 The Five Program Areas Library The Huntington Library is one of the world’s great independent research libraries in the fields of British and American history, literature, art, and the history of science, stretching from the 11th century to the present. Among the collections: 7 million manuscripts • First editions and manuscripts by authors such as William Blake, Jack London, Alexander Pope, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Henry David 430,000 rare books Thoreau, Mark Twain, and William Wordsworth, and the literary 275,000 reference books archives of Charles Bukowski, Octavia Butler, and Hilary Mantel. • Rare books and manuscripts on the history of science, medicine, 875,000 prints and ephemera and technology. With the 2006 acquisition of the Burndy Library 774,000 photographs (a collection of nearly 60,000 items), The Huntington has become among the top institutions in the world for the study of the history of science and technology. highlights The Library Main Exhibition Hall showcases some of the most • Unparalleled materials related to the history of the American outstanding rare books and manuscripts in the collection. About West, constituting nearly 40 percent of the Library’s holdings. 150 rare objects are grouped thematically around 12 key works, • The Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales prompting visitors to consider each item in a wider context. (ca. 1400–1405). The Dibner Hall of the History of Science is a permanent • One of 12 vellum copies of the Gutenberg Bible known to exhibition focusing on astronomy, natural history, medicine, exist (ca. 1455) and one of the most extensive collections of and light. 15th-century printed books in the United States. • Quarto and folio editions of Shakespeare’s plays, some of which The West Hall of the Library presents temporary exhibitions. were printed during the writer’s lifetime. • Letters and manuscripts by George Washington, Thomas The 90,000-square-foot Munger Research Center provides Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and Abraham Lincoln, including storage capacity for further collections development, work space the original manuscript of Franklin’s autobiography. for scholars and staff, and facilities for conservation, preservation, exhibition preparation, digital imaging, and photography. 4 5 Art The Huntington’s art collections focus on European art from the 15th to the early 20th century and American art from the late 17th to the late 20th century. The holdings continue to grow by gift and purchase. The European collections are displayed in the Huntington Art Gallery, the original Huntington residence. American art is on view in the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art. • Renaissance and Mannerist bronze statuettes, including Smaller, focused exhibitions are presented in the Works on Paper Giambologna’s Nessus and Deianira. Room in the Huntington Art Gallery and in the Susan and • The European art collections include about 420 paintings, Stephen Chandler Wing of the Scott Galleries. 370 works of sculpture, more than 2,500 decorative art objects, and 20,000 prints and drawings. european art highlights • One of the most distinguished collections of late 18th- and early american art highlights 19th-century British paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts out- side the United Kingdom, including Thomas Gainsborough’s Blue • Begun in 1979 with a major gift from the Virginia Steele Scott Boy; Sir Joshua Reynolds’ Sarah Siddons as the Tragic Muse; John Foundation, the American art holdings number about 270 Constable’s View on the Stour near Dedham; J. M. W. Turner’s paintings, 80 works of sculpture, 1,000 decorative art objects, The Grand Canal, Venice; and major holdings of design materials 9,500 prints and drawings, and 1,800 photographs. relating to William Morris. • Masterpieces in the paintings collection include Frederic Edwin • The Arabella D. Huntington Memorial Art Collection, Church’s monumental Chimborazo, Mary Cassatt’s intimate which contains Italian and northern European renaissance Breakfast in Bed, Edward Hopper’s evocative sailing scene, paintings, including Rogier van der Weyden’s Virgin and Child, The Long Leg, and Andy Warhol’s Small Crushed Campbell’s and sculpture, along with a spectacular collection of 18th-century Soup Can (Beef Noodle). French sculpture, tapestries, porcelain, and furniture. • The Jonathan and Karin Fielding Wing contains 18th- and 19th- • 18th-century continental European art, particularly French century paintings, furniture, and works of decorative art, offering paintings, including works by Jean-Baptiste Greuze and Antoine visitors insights into the history of American art practice. Watteau; and sculpture, including important works by Clodion • An important part of the permanent installation is a gallery and Jean-Antoine Houdon. devoted to the work of early 20th-century Pasadena architects Charles and Henry Greene. 6 7 Botanical Gardens Encompassing approximately 120 acres of the 207-acre grounds, the botanical gardens contain more than a dozen principal garden areas. highlights • Liu Fang Yuan 流芳園, the Garden of Flowing Fragrance, reflecting the traditional style of scholar gardens in Suzhou, China, and featuring a 1.5-acre lake, a complex of pavilions, a teahouse and tea shop, stone bridges, and waterfalls set against a wooded backdrop of mature oaks and pines. • The Japanese Garden, with a traditional Japanese house, a moon bridge, a walled Zen garden, and bonsai courts, and Seifu-an, a ceremonial teahouse and garden. • The Desert Garden, one of the largest outdoor collections of mature cacti and succulents in the world. • The Frances and Sidney Brody California Garden in the for children and families, and showcasing orchids and other Steven S. Koblik Education and Visitor Center. Arranged along tropical collections. a central allée of olive trees, the garden includes native and adaptive - Adjacent laboratories offering opportunities for botanical plantings set among hedge rooms in a nod toward more formal research. Plant biologists are testing ways to safely freeze aloe landscape design. tissue as a conservation method. Genetic research on cycads • The Frances Lasker Brody Botanical Center, featuring: is revealing much about the plant’s evolutionary history. - The Helen and Peter Bing Children’s Garden, introducing - The Ranch Garden, testing and demonstrating contemporary youngsters to the wonders of the natural world through ideas for sustainable urban agriculture. interactive sculptural elements. • Additional garden areas devoted to roses and camellias, each - The Rose Hills Foundation Conservatory for Botanical collection with more than 1,400 different cultivars. The camellia Science and the Associated Foundations Teaching Greenhouse, collection is considered one of the most comprehensive in the world. providing hands-on botanical science opportunities • The Australian, Herb, Jungle, Lily Ponds, Palm, and Subtropical gardens are among other important botanical attractions. 8 9 Research Education Each year, some 1,700 scholars come from around the world The Huntington’s education programs interpret